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Sweet Treats

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Tips and tricks for perfect sponge cake

It all starts with a simple sponge cake
Before you can create these little iced masterpieces, you’ll need to make or buy a square
cake base. For the demonstrated lesson, we’ve used a simple sponge cake recipe, but if
you’re feeling adventurous, you could use carrot cake for the base or even chocolate
brownies.

Remember the handy ratio
A sponge cake is a fantastic quick kitchen fix, mostly because it involves using a simple
formula. Learn it off by heart and you’ll be whipping up spongy deliciousness on demand,
with no fuss at all. Equal quantities of butter, sugar, flour and egg will give you perfect
results every time.

Use room temperature ingredients
Ingredients at room temperature will blend together properly, especially when it comes to
adding the eggs (cold eggs can cause a mixture to split and curdle).

Creaming takes five minutes
Look out for a change in colour and texture. When your butter and sugar mixture becomes
light and fluffy, you’ll know it’s been creamed properly. The fluffy texture is caused by air
bubbles that have been incorporated into the mixture while beating, and these will help
your cake to rise properly when you bake it. You can cream butter and sugar with a

handheld mixer or even using a bowl and wooden spoon.

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